Ian Nairn on London beer in the mid-1960s
Ian Nairn was a writer and broadcaster who had robust views on the British landscape and architecture.
He died far too young at 53
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Nairn
With Britain on lockdown its not a bad time to check out his writings (some of which including his 1966 book on London remain in print). The BBC also has several of his 1972 series on Britain available on the iPlayer
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=ian+nairn
Nairn liked beer and Boak and Bailey have quite rightly rescued his thoughts on the matter for a new generation.
In his 1966 book he included a brief postscript on London beer as the Capital saw cask beer give way to old style keg beer
Nairn was a fan of cask beer noting ‘the old small breweries have been largely swallowed up and their individual tastes have been replaced by mass produced flavours, which in London tend to be unpleasantly tinny, without any bouquet’.
This pre-dated the founding of CAMRA by around 5 years.
What ‘draught beer’ did Nairn like?
Whitbread bitter
Fullers London Pride (his favourite)
Draught Bass & Worthington E
He goes on to note ‘if you are forced into drinking keg which is a kind of bottled beer in big cans’ he suggests:
Bass/Worthington E
Flowers
Guinness
Nairn came to like beer a little too much which unfortunately led to his early death but the book remains an incomparable guide to London and it doesn’t overlook pubs or beer both in the brief postscript and as he ranges around the different parts of London.
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